| People Making a Difference
College Students Helping Senior Citizens
After Hurricane Irene swept up the East Coast in August 2011, many towns and cities faced severe flooding. One of these towns was Cranford, New Jersey, just southwest of Newark. Streets and hundreds of homes flooded, and many residents’ belongings were ruined.
Union County College, which has campuses in Cranford and a few other towns, came to Cranford residents’ aid. As the college president explained in late August, “Many of the town’s residents are senior citizens. Even though the fall term won’t begin until Sept. 1, we’ve still got a number of strong men and women on campus to help residents clear out their basements and help move whatever people needed moved.”
Led by the dean of college life, a dozen or so students went house-to-house on a Cranford street that experienced the worst flooding to aid the town’s senior citizens and younger ones as well. The dean later recalled, “Everyone we met was just so happy to see us there helping out. Sometimes they had plenty of work for us. Other times, they just smiled and said they were glad to know we cared.”
A news report summarized the impact of the students’ assistance: “In the coming weeks and months, Cranford residents will be able to recover what their town lost to Irene. But they may never forget the damage Irene caused, nor are they likely to forget how Union County College’s students came to help them in their time of need.” At a time of crisis, the staff and students of Union County College in the small town of Cranford, New Jersey, made a big difference in the lives of Cranford’s senior citizens and younger residents alike.
Source: Cranford Chronicle, 2011 [26]
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